In memoriam, Stephen Hart 1967-2014

[Ron Moses]

Steve Hart, a friend to many on this newsgroup and an all-around amazing human being, passed away at his home in Weare, NH on Thursday after battling cancer for over a year. He was much loved by all who had the pleasure of knowing him.

Steve was an active participant in the Keneally fan community. He was an early frequenter of this newsgroup, attended (and played at) Nonkerstock 2000, and worked directly with Mike on various projects. He was among the best of us, and the pain of his absence will be felt for a very long time.

Steve's obituary, including funeral details, can be found at the link below. I encourage those who knew and loved him to share their thoughts in the guest book, this thread, or his Facebook page.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/unionleader/obituary.aspx?n=stephen-m-hart&pid=171869654&

Rest well, Steve. We miss you.


(Note: Please forgive me if I've misstated Steve's year of birth. I can't find his exact birthday but I believe it was August or September.)

[Ron Moses]

I met Steve through this newsgroup. This was back when I first started getting into collecting and trading Keneally shows (on cassette!) and he asked me if I'd send him a few shows. I said sure, and sent him my address so he could send me some blank tapes. Turns out we lived about three blocks from one another.

Steve was the kind of guy who made me wish I was more like him. Everyone who knew him loved him. You couldn't help it. He was a big teddy bear of a guy, not just physically but in terms of his personality. Wherever you were, whatever you were doing, if Steve was there it was a better time for everyone.

Steve encouraged me musically, and I owe him a great debt for that. He once told me I was one of his favorite songwriters, and while I don't know how much of that was friendly flattery, it meant a lot to me and still does. He was one of the few people who were willing to work with me to help me bring my music alive (I can be difficult). Sadly, the album he and I last worked on was never completed, entirely due to my lack of confidence and attention. And the one performance he and I did together, playing as Disguising Godiva at Nonkerstock, was plagued by technical issues (Steve didn't know you have to detune your guitar before you get on a plane... bye-bye bridge). But I'll treasure the few snippets of audio I have as a reminder of what could have been, if only I'd had the wisdom to make the most of the time I had with him.

Steve and I drifted a bit recently, and I didn't even notice it happening. I see now that I took him for granted. If you had asked me a month ago, I would have told you that Steve was one of my best friends in the world. And I never would have guessed that, going through my emails and call logs, I hadn't touched base with him in almost two years. How could I let that much time go by? Did I just assume I could pick up the phone any time and he'd be there? I can't count the number of times over the past year I've thought about calling him just to see how he's doing. And each time I blew it off. As a result, his passing came as a complete shock to me. I had no idea he was sick, and he'd been battling this for over a year. I should have been there for him. I was a bad friend, and when I leave this world, high on my list of regrets will be the fact that I wasn't a better friend to Steve Hart. When you're lucky enough to have someone that amazing enter your life, you do what you can to keep them in your life. I feel so foolish.

I'm sorry for dumping so much of my own misery into what should be a post about how awesome Steve was. (I'm guessing nobody's reading this far anyway.) But I just need to put these feelings out into the universe.

Steve, I love you, my brother. You had your rough edges but at your center you were flawless. I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you. But I will carry a piece of you in my heart for the rest of my life, and I'll be a better man for it. Thank you for sharing a little bit of your life with me.

ron

[Antal Adriaanse]

I am sorry for your loss, Ron. And thank you for sharing this.

Mostly I knew Stephen from his posts here (ammk) and way back when on the Random Fandom maillists, plus a couple of personal e-mails over ten years ago. We had mutual buddies. And like with so many of you/us, at some point we kinda lost track of each other. Life goes on. We did become facebook-friends in December 2010. But you know what facebook is like...

The news came as a shock to me. Although I had picked up something about him not being well, I was not aware of the very serious nature of his illness. Reading the posts on his facebook page, the kind and warm words, he was loved by many.

My thoughts go out to family, friends, to all those who loved him.

AA

[Sheryl]

I miss Steve terribly. He showed me great kindness many years ago when I was on a business trip to the NorthEast - and again at Nonkerstock. He was simply the best.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/unionleader/obituary.aspx?n=stephen-m-hart&pid=171869654&

[Ron Moses]

Steve's funeral was this morning. It was a completely full church. I don't think I even *know* that many people, so it was a real testament to the number of lives Steve touched. As Catholic funeral masses go, it was a nice one. Afterward we ate and drank and shared stories of our times with Steve, with his music playing in the background the whole time. Lots of laughter, lots of tears. Scott Lurowist was there, as were Brian Brodeur and a few other people some folks here might know. It was a fitting sendoff for a good friend.

ron

[Sheryl]

I'm thankful that you and Scott were able to attend. Our little MK family has suffered some losses, but the love is still strong.
Peace to you all.
s.

[Sheryl]

My heart still hurts :(

[Ron Moses]

Post by Sheryl
My heart still hurts :(

I have a song. Maybe it will help. Hopefully it will be on YouTube very soon, once I figure out the last verse and get it practiced to the point where the only embarrassing aspect of the video is how crappy my Flip camera is.

ron

[Ron Moses]

Happy birthday, Steve.

ron